Page 19 of Jumping In

“I don’t know, but I told her no way was I gonna start calling her Emmalynn. But fuck, I forgot. Even before that, she invites me in and leads me to the library.” Blake’s eyes go wide.

Yeah, the library is a special place for me and MJ. We spent so many days lounging around, reading together in that library. Most of the time reading separate books, but sometimes together, one of us reading out loud to the other. I think that’s when I fell in love with her, with her mind at least.

“Yeah, the library. So, she’s sitting there scrolling through her phone and I see she’s reading one of my favorite books. I know she’s already read it a few times because we read it together at least once when we were younger. Anyway, she was practically ignoring me, and I don’t know why, but when she headed into her dad’s office, I swiped her book.” I blurt out and take a deep breath, looking at my friends for their response.

“You did what? Why?” Blake asks, raising his voice a bit.

“Honestly, at the time I wasn’t thinking, maybe for old time’s sake?”

“You guys haven’t read together since . . .” Blake reminds me.

“That summer, yeah, I know,” I finish for him.

“The summer your dad got sick?” Austin asks.

“Yeah, and he pulled away,” Blake fills in for me, and I nod.

“Fuck, dude.” Austin blows out a breath.

“You juststole her book? Did you keep it?” Blake asks.

“I thought about it, but I also thought maybe this could be my in.” I look up at the guys and they both look confused. “We used to annotate books for each other when we were too busy to read together.”

Annotating kind of became our thing once we became teenagers. It was too hard to make time to read together, so instead we would read separately, jot our thoughts down in the margins, and then swap. My copies were usually just my handwriting scribbled all over the pages, but MJ would always put these cute little tabs throughout the book. She would tell me what the colors stood for, but I always fucking forgot. I didn’t really care about them, anyway. I just enjoyed reading her thoughts.

“So, you wrote little love notes in her book thinking it would make her like you again?” Austin asks.

“I mean, I guess?” Shrugging, I continue, “I annotated it for her, and I gave it back to her this morning.”

“Bro.” Austin sighs. I look at Blake who’s trying not to grin.

“I guarantee she had something to say about you stealing her book.”

I tell them about her genuine curiosity if I liked it, and how she handed me another book on my way out.

“So you guys are swapping books again?” Blake asks, and I shrug but nod. “Well, it’s a start.” He leans forward on the couch, resting his elbows on his knees and tents his fingers together. “Can I ask you something? What’s your end gamehere?”

I look up at the ceiling and blow out a breath. “Fuck if I know.”

Austin rolls his eyes and Blake chuckles. “Seriously, are you just looking for friendship again, or are you finally gonna shoot your shot?” Blake asks with sincerity.

“Shoot what shot? I’m no good for her, man.” I shake my head.

“You’re the only one who thinks that,” Blake says. Pity sits in his eyes.

“Nah, pretty sure the whole fucking town thinks that.”

“That’s because they don’t know the truth. I’m serious. If you just told Mr. L the truth, this would all be over,” Blake suggests.

“I can’t do that, and you know why!” Austin winces at my outburst. “It’s fine though. I’m the bad boy everyone loves to hate, right?”

“Mac, come on,” Blake tries to reason with me, but I’m over it.

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s all good.” I shake my head and get up to toss my now empty soda can into the recycle bin.

“Well, would you at least try to be her friend again? Let her back in just—” I start to interrupt Blake but he puts his hand up. “Just enough so that we can all hang out like we used to?”

“Yeah, dude, it’d be nice if we could all chill by the creek and have fun again. I hate having to split my time now that she’s back home,” Austin chimes in while scrolling on his phone.

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